[ Contents | Search | Reply | Next | Previous | Up ]
From: Russ Hicks
Date: 12 Oct 2006
Time: 19:04:19 -0500
Remote Name: 71.252.204.114
Hello Antoinette, ..... Thank you for your kind words. Words like yours make this all so worthwhile for me. <smile> ..... I wonder, also, how many people I've been able to touch. To be honest with you, that's pretty scary. I never knew I had ANY power to inspire people. When my friend Lee Reeves told me "You never know who you touch" I never had any real grasp of the truth of that statement. But now I realize it doesn't just apply to me, but to EVERYONE. We're all role models to people whether we realize it or not. ..... Yes, you CAN realize a lot of what we go through. A student SLP visiting our Dallas NSA chapter once told of a time she was learning Spanish and decided to spend a summer down in Mexico to immerse herself in Spanish. She had taken Spanish for many years in school and felt pretty confident in her own ability. But when she got down there she was scared to death to really interact with the general population. People would look at her "funny" because of her accent, and she felt that they thought she was slow and stupid because she couldn't speak as well as they could, etc., etc. She felt very isolated because of her inability to speak "normally". The parallels to stuttering were amazing! The story of the my Chinese co-workers at TI tell that same story. So don't sell yourself short on empathy. ..... And there's always the "fun" exercise of going out in public and purposefully stuttering while ordering food at a restaurant, asking for directions, talking on the phone, etc. Students always love that part of their education on stuttering! <grin> And yes, you CAN do it. It's NOT fatal! ..... I suggest you join Toastmaster WITH your clients. I've had a number of SLPs that I've brought into Toastmasters and it's as much of a revelation to them as it is to people who stutter. And, believe me, it's FUN! If you do it along with your clients, you won't even have to use a gun! <smile> ..... If I've touched YOU, now it becomes your turn to touch others. That's just the way it works. Go get 'em! ..... Again, thanks for your comments. I wish you the very best in school and in life. ..... Russ